World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Turkey -- Gallipoli Peninsula
the little carts so evenly balanced that they can go about anywhere.
It is a very interesting sight to see a convoy of these carts on the
move, with their dusky, turbaned drivers sitting crouched up like
monkeys on them, chanting some weird Oriental ballad as they go, to the
accompaniment of jingling harness. They are well looked after, too,
these little mules—the drivers have had the care of them for years,
perhaps—and their training is perfect. They look as fat as butter, and
their coats shine like satin—very different from the hulking, ugly
brutes that we have brought—American. They appear to be quite docile,
and it is not necessary to have eyes in the back of your head when
walking through their lines.
I hear to-day that Major Barlow, to whom I was talking a few days ago
in the trenches, has been badly wounded.
One aeroplane has been very busy going out and coming back after short
trips over the enemy’s positions, followed by little puffs of bursting
shrapnel when over their lines. The weather is perfect.
_Swiftsure_ and _Queen Bess_ are now up the coast off the gully, and
are giving the left slope of Achi Baba and Krithia something to write
home about. Torpedo destroyers are also joining in, and later the shore
batteries take up the tune, and a bombardment similar to yesterday’s
starts, preparatory to another battle.
French “75’s” are barking away incessantly, and the bombardment is
increasing in ferocity.
New Zealanders are on the extreme left, then the 87th Brigade, next
the 88th and 86th, or what is left of it, with the new Territorial
Lancashire Fusiliers. Next come Australians, up on the hill by the
White House; and on the extreme right down to the edge of the Straits,
the French. The line forms the shape of a ◡, the extremes resting on
ground on either side of the Peninsula.
Through glasses at six o’clock I can see little figures running here
and there on the high ground to the extreme right beyond the White
House—now taking cover, now running forward, now disappearing on the
other side; ugly black shells rain amongst them and make a sickening
sight. Turkish artillery appears to have increased considerably. Their
shells rain all along our line, but none come on the beaches. All their
artillery seems concentrated on our trenches. Again and again I see
shells fall right in the middle of men who seem to be running. It is
difficult to discern whether they are Turks or our men.
I watch till the sight sickens me, and then I come away and arrange
the rations to go up to-night, seeing the boxes roped up on to the
pack-mules or loaded on to the A.T. carts. Two shells come near the
beach, bursting with a black explosion in the air. Rifle fire goes on
all night, but artillery dies down to fitful shelling. I hear that the
net result of to-day’s work is a gain of five hundred yards, but that
we have had great casualties.
_May 10th._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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